Betzalel
b. c. 1326 BCE · Biblical era · Egypt
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Betzalel, son of Uri son of Hur, of the tribe of Yehudah, was the master craftsman of the Mishkan, the portable sanctuary Israel built in the wilderness. God told Moshe that He had 'singled out by name' Betzalel and filled him with a divine spirit of skill, ability and knowledge. That skill covered gold, silver and copper work, stone-setting and wood-carving (Exodus 31:1-5). He was also given the ability to teach others (Exodus 35:34). With his partner Oholiab of the tribe of Dan, he led all the skilled workers (Exodus 36:1-2). He made the ark himself (Exodus 37:1), and the Torah sums up that he 'made all that the LORD had commanded Moses' (Exodus 38:22). The bronze altar he made was still standing at Givon in Shlomo's day (2 Chronicles 1:3-5). The Talmud (Berakhot 55a) praises his wisdom with a play on his name: Moshe tells him that perhaps he had been 'in the shadow of God' (betzel El). It also says he knew how to combine the letters through which heaven and earth were created. In a calculation in Sanhedrin 69b, the Talmud takes him to have been thirteen when he made the Mishkan.
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Egypt
What they did here
On the traditional reckoning he was born during the bondage in Egypt and left in the Exodus. The Torah does not state his birthplace. General Egypt pin.
Egypt in this era
In the biblical narrative Egypt is where Abraham went during a famine, where Joseph became the pharaoh's chief minister, and where Jacob's descendants were enslaved until Moses led the Exodus (traditional Jewish chronology: 1313 BCE). Historians find no direct Egyptian or archaeological record of these events; many see the story as taking shape over centuries, possibly around older memories of Semitic groups living in Egypt.
About Egypt
Egypt, the Nile valley and delta in northeast Africa, was home to one of the world's oldest states, ruled by pharaohs from about 3000 BCE. In the Torah's narrative Abraham sojourned there, Joseph rose to power there and the Israelites were enslaved before the Exodus; historians find no direct evidence for these events, though many think the story may preserve older memories. Greek traders and travellers knew Egypt from the 7th century BCE; Alexander's conquest (332 BCE) brought Ptolemaic and then Roman rule (from 30 BCE), with Alexandria a capital of Greek learning and home to a large Jewish community. After the Arab conquest (639-642) Fustat and then Cairo became its centres; Maimonides lived and wrote in Fustat in the 12th century.
In Egypt at the same time
In the same place & time
Sages whose lives overlapped with Betzalel’s in the same cities, drawn from their recorded journeys.
In the same tradition
Miriam HaNeviah, Aharon HaKohen, Moshe Rabbenu, Kalev, Yitro
The world in their lifetime
Thinkers, teachers, and rulers whose lives overlapped with Betzalel’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn from recorded birth and death years (reign years for rulers whose lives are undated); where only one end of a life is known, a span of about 70 years is assumed.
Jewish world
Egyptian world
Works
No works attributed in the corpus yet.